The Parliamentary Committee for Constitutional Affairs has decided on Wednesday 10th February to send the Minister of Justice, Francisca Van Dunem, a petition requesting that the Indian citizen Paranjeet Pamma Singh, who was arrested last year in the Algarve, should not be extradited to India.
The chairman of the Constitutional Affairs, Pedro Bacelar de Vasconcelos, proposed that the petition should be sent to the Minister of Justice because it is a responsibility of the Government to deal with.
Paramjeet Singh, activist ‘Sihk’ , was arrested on December 18 in a hotel in the Algarve by the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) under an international arrest warrant for extradition issued by Interpol.
The petition describes Paramjeet Singh as a Sikh nationalist arrested “on fabricated terrorism charges,” stating that “has been at the forefront of the campaign for the rights of Sikhs to self-determination to release the Punjab Indian occupation, in a democratic way.” The text of the petition points out that since 2000 ‘Pamma’ had an ‘indefinite leave to remain in the UK as a refugee under the UN 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.”
The petitioners allege that he would be subjected to torture in India, and recalls that Portugal signed the United Nations Convention against Torture in 1985, which means that the country is forbidden to extradite someone to a country where there is reason to believe that is subjected to torture.
According to police, Paramjeet Singh has since 1992, been involved in minor crimes and is appointed as leader of groups that the Indian authorities classify as terrorists. After leaving India, in 1994-95, he was in Pakistan numerous times and has become the main financier of the movement Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), considered a terrorist group by India.